Hello there Wine Lovers, and around V-Day we really do mean Lovers! Say, what's almost as good as a spectacular bottle of your favorite wine? No, not Corinthian Leather*. Rare and Super Premium Scotch, Whiskey, or Bourbon. This year we are looking to put together a Live Lot of these various liquid golds to wet some lucky bidders whistle. Here's what we need from you; some great bottles, Single Malts, Blends, or Bourbon's to seed this Lot. Cheers!

(*The entire post above should be read out loud in a Ricardo Montalbán voice.)

How would you like to take the kids on a blimp ride?  Well, get your ready for this, we have secured a ride on the world famous Goodyear Blimp for one lucky Manhattan Wine Auction bidder.  Imagine soaring among the cloudless skies of Southern California in this iconic dirigible! Get your scarf and aviator glasses and checkbok ready!  Thanks Goodyear.

Gary Premeaux of South Bay Ford has donated the first live auction lot to the 2012 Manhattan Wine Auction: A Ford Escape.

What a huge donation!!!  Thanks to Gary and all the good people at South Bay Ford.

We had a great time Tuesday at Tin Roof Bistro with William Cole Vineyards. Winemaker and owner William Ballentine was unable to join us, so he sent his only other employees Patrick Memmott and Todd Bush who were fantastic. Patrick and Todd generously poured four vintages for us.  First, with the Beef Tartare appetizer, they poured the 2008 William Cole Cuvee Clarie Cabernet. Next up was the 2007 William Cole Cuvee Clarie Cabernet which was paired with a Goat Cheese Bread Pudding laced with bacon.  The pairing together was lights out.  Following that course we moved on to the 2006 William Cole Cuvee Clarie Cabernet that was paired with Lamb Medallions and a Celery Root Puree.  The final course was a chocolate and caramel crème that was paired with the 2000 William Cole Cuvee Clarie Cabernet that came out of the owners own stash.

Patrick and Todd did great speaking about each wine we tried and giving us a good feel and background for how special this winery is.  Seriously, do yourself a favor and check them out.  

William Cole Vineyards

You won’t be disappointed.

We're looking forward to our Sold Out Small Vintner Dinner with William Cole this coming Wednesday.  William Cole is a 3-acre all-estate Napa cabernet. Production is only 500-800 cases a year. The owner, William Balentine, literally does it all himself.  His wines are not rated because he doesn't need Parker or Spectator to validate he is a top California Cabernet producer. For those of you lucky enough to be going, here is the menu. If you're not going, then rage with jealousy over this:

We will start the evening with appetizers paired with the 2008 William Cole Cabernet Sauvignon "Cuvee Claire." The dinner courses will be paired with the 2007 William Cole Cabernet Sauvignon "Cuvee Claire" and the 2006 William Cole Cabernet Sauvignon "Cuvee Claire." Desert will be paired with the 2000 William Cole Cabernet Sauvignon "Cuvee Claire" straight out of William and Jane Ballentine's (owner/winemaker) personal cellar.

BOOM!!!

Hello WAB Members!  We had a great dinner last month at Rock-n-Fish to kick off the new year.  We featured Cabernets older than 2004, and had some great ones. Pahlmeyer, Ch St. Jean Cinq Cepages, J. Phelps, Hall and Silver Oak all showed very well.  This time we are going to highlight Rhone varietals, French vs. Central Coast at Paul Martin's. So bring a bottle your 94+ point or better Rhone type juice and let's see which ones shine!

Shoot an email to Kimberly at kimberly@amicir.com and reserve your spot ASAP.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Folks, here it is.  The Official 2011 MWA Program.  http://manhattanwineauction.com/uploads/WA11-Program2011.pdf

Hi-Lites Include-

Live Lots  

Lot 3- 2010 Wine Spectator Top 20

This is your rare chance to own ALL 20 of Wine Spectator's Top 20 Wines for 2010 including Saxum, Revana, Paul Hobbs, Schrader Cellars, Fontodi, Altamura, and more.

Lot 9- Tasting Party

Nothing says fun like 14 bottles of Silver Oak Cabernet and 11 bottles of Kistler Chardonnay for your next dinner party.  Have the gang over, brown bag the bottles, and let the subjective fun begin!

Lot 14- The 2011 Judgement of Manhattan Beach: CA Cabernet vs. Bordeaux

On May 24th 1976 Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, set up a blind tasting of CA reds and whites vs their French counterparts.  In an epic trouncing, CA wines took the top spots in each category that left the French crying in their brie! Thus was ushered in the rise of New World wines.  Now it's your turn.  Send up Pride, Blankiet, Kapscandy, Spottswoode, Pahlmeyer, and SCREAMING Eagle against Haut-Brion, Latour, Cos D'Estournel, and Mouton Rothschild to let the debate begin anew.

Lot 17- Peruvian Culture and Diversity

You and your Bestie are flying of to Lima Peru in Business Class courtesy of our awesome friends at American Airlines (We Know Why You Fly).  But that's just the start.  Stops include Cuzco and the legendary Machu Picchu where you can explore this unique citadel on a full day private visit.

Lot 18- A Collection of 2007 California Cabernet

2007 is by far the greatest vintage for N. CA Bordeaux varietals since 2001 and 2002.  This lot contains 23 bottles of the best wine making artistry available in the 2007 vintage.  None other than Robert Parker has deemed 6 of these 23 bottles perfect with scores of 100!

Silent Lots

Included in the Silent Lots: An executive home in HI, wine tasting in Sonoma, Golf at Barton Creek, 6 month membership to Equinox, facials from Murad, Dodger tickets, American Idol Finale tickets, Luxerious Hollywood Bowl tickets, summer camps for the kiddies, and the piece de la resistance, a ride to school in a fire truck with MB Firefighters.

Attention wine loving interweb friends.  We want to create compelling and fun lots for the attendees to bid on, so we are still looking for the following wines.  If you have them in the back of your cellar, and are feeling EXTRA generous, or if you have a friend, family member, or someone you just don't like but they have a lot of cool wine and you can swipe a bottle or two; here is what we are looking for:

2007 Perfects-  Robert Parker, in his infinite wisdom, has deigned to give his 100 point Love to the following (and we'd love to have a bottle of each to make this lot): SCREAMING Eagle, Hundred Acre Vineyard Ark, Sloan Proprietary Red, Bond Vecina, Abreu Thorevilos, Schrader CCS, Schrader Sparky (not Sparky Griswold).

2000 First Growths-  All we need are the Haut Brion and Rothschild to complete this lot.  

OWBs- Old Wooden Boxes is always a fun lot.  Do you have any highly rated wine that came to you in a cool wooden box?  Let us know.

Verticals-  3 years or more of 90+ point rated awesomeness.  If you have a vertical highly rated wine, we would love to hear about it.

So there you have it, just some of the lots we are working on as we speak.  We'll have some more request as the Auction gets closer.  We sincerely appreciate all the donations we have received so far, it's going to be a great Auction.

To donate, please contact adamgoldston1@gmail.com or bbpulver@aol.com